I represent the first generation who, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson.
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Monday, November 04, 2013

This Week in Television History: November 2013 PART I

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

November 5, 1911

Leonard Slye, later known as Roy Rogers, is born in
Cincinnati, Ohio.

Rogers first came
to Hollywood in the 1920s as a migrant fruit picker. In the early 1930s, he
joined a singing group called Uncle Tom Murray's Hollywood Hillbillies, which
first sang on the radio in 1931. Rogers went on to sing with other similar
groups, including the Sons of the Pioneers, which recorded hits like
"Tumbling Tumbleweeds." The Sons of the Pioneers group was recruited
for low-budget western films, and Rogers was soon playing bit parts for
Republic Pictures, the same studio where cowboy star Gene Autry worked. When
Autry quit over a dispute with the studio in 1937, Rogers gained more exposure.
Starring with his trick horse, Trigger, and his frequent co-star Dale Evans,
Rogers soon became one of the Top 10 moneymakers in Hollywood.

Rogers also followed
Autry into the radio medium, launching The Roy Rogers Show in 1944. The
show, a mix of music and drama, always closed with the song "Happy
Trails," which became known as Rogers' theme song.

After
Rogers' wife died in 1946, he married co-star Dale Evans. His radio program ran
until 1955. In 1951, a TV version of the program debuted and ran until 1957.
Rogers became one of the wealthiest men in Hollywood by diversifying his money:
His empire included a TV production studio, real estate, cattle, horses, a
rodeo show, and a restaurant chain. Roy Rogers died in 1998.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was" and as Roy would say, "Until we meet again on screen
or in person, good night, good luck, and may the good Lord take a
likin' to you."

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Pre-ramble

I represent the first generation whom, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson.
Read the full "Pre-ramble"